This group, which is concerned with the applications of mathematics to agricultural science, is sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. It was formed in 1970, and has since met at approximately yearly intervals in London for one-day meetings. The twenty-seventh meeting of the group, chaired by Professor D. E. Beever of the Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, was held in the Wellcome Meeting Room at the Royal Society, 6 Carlton House Terrace, London on Friday, 13 October 1995, when the following papers were read.